Thanks to some long awaited time off, it’s been a busy few days here at Missouri Star, resulting in some actual FO’s.  Dial up users, be forewarned this is a picture heavy post, so be patient.

First off, Ivy’s newborn set is all done except for buttons and ribbon:

It looks alarmingly large.  I was hoping she could wear it home from the hospital, but it may be more appropriate for 3 months or so.  But that will also put it in the middle of Orlando winter, so it might be more appropriate weather-wise also.  Also finished, the Tulip Cardigan:

Yes, I started it about a week ago.  This knit was more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  However, gauge was not my friend.  Yes, I did a swatch and yes, I got gauge.  But when I reached the end, it looked a little small – see it compared to the "newborn" set?

I measured again and lo and behold I was 1/2 stitch per inch off.  Of course, in the wonderful world of baby knitting, both sweaters will fit her at some point.  I only found one puzzling discrepancy in the pattern.  When picking up the stitches for the front seed stitch border, you are instructed to pick up 3 stitches for every 4 rows.  However, when knitting the fronts you were told to slip the first stitch of every row.  That results in one edge stitch for every two rows.  I don’t see how you can have it both ways.  I just picked up one for one in each edge stitch and it worked out fine.  Of course, for such a little sweater there were an amazing number of ends to weave in.  This, however, was more than offset by the fact that there was NO seaming!  All, in all, I highly recommend this pattern and I’ve already started on a matching one for Izzy.

Also on the knitting front, I have joined the Six Sock Knitalong.  Please don’t ask me why.  Because it was there?  Anyhoo, here’s the start of my I Love Gansey Sock:

I’m using Regia Silk and I think it’s turning out just lovely.  Certainly not a mindless knit, but the pattern is relatively clear.  I tried once again using two circs, but I keep coming back to my tried and trusted dpn’s.  They just feel so comfortable to me.  My brother-in-law was watching me knit and asked how many needles I had.  I told him five.  He said, "Too many moving parts for me."  But I told him only two were moving at any one time. 

I also had some free time to play with my sewing machine and turned out these cute receiving blankets:

They will be donated to our local Pregnancy Care Clinic, reinforcing my belief that every child is a wanted child – even if some mother only uses it once to wrap up her baby as a gift to an adoptive family.

Thanks to all of you who have send good wishes for Hester our way.  She is scheduled for surgery on Monday for a biopsy.  She goes in at 8:00 a.m., but the vet said she may be home as early as noon.   We just hate sending her "under the knife" because she seems so much better on Rimadyl, but I would hate knowing that there was something that we could fix if caught early and we did nothing.  I’ll keep you posted on her progress.

And lastly, all of the photos in this post were taken with my new Canon SD1000.  Hubby’s camera died and he was looking for a new one.  He headed off to the store to buy for himself and instead came home with a new one for me!  He had heard me saying that I liked my camera but wished I had a smaller one.  So he’s taking my Canon G6 and giving me the new one.  What a sweetie!  Once again he proves he’s a keeper.